1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector suitable for high-speed transmission.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, there has been proposed a connector which is suitable for high-speed transmission, and is provided with contact groups and a housing (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-334748, Paragraph numbers [0018] and [0019], FIG. 3).
Each of the contact groups is comprised of a ground contact, a positive signal contact, and a negative signal contact. The ground contact has a first contact portion and a first connection portion. The positive signal contact has a second contact portion and a second connection portion. The negative signal contact has a third contact portion and a third connection portion. The contact groups are held in the housing. The first to third contact portions and the first to third connection portions of the contact groups are arranged in the direction of the width of the housing. The pitch of the first to third connection portions is 1.5 times as large as that of the first to third contact portions.
Recently, the diameter of a cable tends to be increased so as to enhance the transmission characteristics of the connector. In the above-described connector, however, the pitch of the first to third connection portions is only 1.5 times as large as that of the first to third contact portions, and hence the connector suffers from the problem that when cables having a large diameter are used, it is difficult to perform connecting operations. Although it is possible to increase the pitch of the first to third connection portions by increasing the size of the housing, this undesirably increases the size of the connector. Further, although it is possible to increase the pitch of the first to third connection portions by arranging the first to third connection portions in two rows on alternately staggered arrangement, this results in degradation of the transmission characteristics of the connector because signal pairs become adjacent to other signal pairs.